‘Cryptodad’ Regulator Catches Some Twitter Heat

Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo has blown up on Twitter recently, gaining tens of thousands of followers almost overnight after enthusiastically testifying in February to Congress about digital currencies. The balding, bespectacled 58-year-old regulator now has 49,000 Twitter followers and is regularly lauded in memes that call him “Bitcoin Jesus” and “one of us! one of us!” He’s even embraced the slightly dorky hashtag given to him by the Bitcoin masses: #cryptodad.

His new-found fame has also come with a downside, as he's made some serious, unforced errors trying to be active on social media. He had his account impersonated by people, making it look as if he's asking for crypto donations for the government. A few weeks later, he inadvertently drew attention to a potential violation of an open meeting law when he tweeted a picture of a Republicans-only meeting he had about coordinating swaps rules. Apart from causing strife with his CFTC colleagues and Democrats on Capitol Hill, the Twitter circus around Giancarlo's posts is causing some investor advocates to worry that it may encourage people to buy into a risky product few of them understand.